Drexel to create 250 scholarships for low-income city graduates

Heeding Mayor Nutter's call to help more Philadelphia students into and through college, Drexel University will create 250 full-tuition scholarships for city graduates over the next five years, officials said yesterday.

The scholarships, which will cover tuition and fees, will be awarded to public and private school students from low-income families who meet criteria for admission to the private West Philadelphia university.

Fifty "Liberty Scholars" will be named each year, and their scholarships will be renewable over their college careers if they maintain a 2.75 grade-point average. Drexel students typically attend class for five years, including three internships.

Drexel's initiative is expected to cost the university about $28 million through 2014-15, said Joan McDonald, senior vice president of enrollment management. Tuition and fees average about $36,000 a year.

"This is our hometown investment," McDonald said. "This is our response to the mayor's call to double the number of graduates each year coming out of the school district that are going to college and eventually graduating from college."

Drexel will announce the program to legislators and other dignitaries at a luncheon on campus tomorrow.

The move brought praise from Nutter and his staff.

"They're really going to be a leader in this area for us, and they're setting a high bar for other institutions," said Lori Shorr, Nutter's chief education adviser.

Since taking office in 2008, Nutter has been meeting with area university presidents to enlist their help in doubling the percentage of city residents who have college degrees. In the 2000 census, the figure was 18 percent.

He said earlier this month that he would seek to have area universities add up to 100 full scholarships for city students this year and hoped to have 1,000 in place by 2011, the end of his first term. City officials aren't sure how many currently exist.

The University of Pennsylvania for many years has awarded the "mayor's scholarship" to city students, meeting their full financial need. This year, there are 184 on campus. Temple in 2008 created four special scholarships for city students, and this year has 20 attending on full scholarship, a university spokeswoman said.

St. Joseph's University and the University of the Sciences also are looking at the possibility of adding full city scholarships, officials said.

La Salle University has taken a different approach. Over the last two years, it has boosted aid packages to city commuter students, said Edward A. Turzanski, counsel to the president for government relations. That has helped to increase the percentage of city students in the freshman class from 19 percent in 2007 to 27 percent, or 258 students, this year, he said.

Philadelphians received about $12.5 million of the $49 million that La Salle gave out in institutional aid this year.

"Instead of offering a limited number of full-ride scholarships, what we did is repackage aid to attract a larger number of commuter students," he said.

Drexel, a major technological university with a law school and medical school here and a graduate campus in California, isn't sure how much the new program will increase city applications. But officials expect some rise. The university each year receives about 2,000 city applications - 6 percent of its overall pool. About 150 of its 2,400 freshmen are city students.

McDonald said the scholarships also would provide financial support to students who might have come to Drexel anyway but would have had more of a financial struggle.

"Even with significant financial aid from the university and federal and state resources, unless you meet full need, students wind up having to work or have anxiety about paying the bill," she said.

While the Liberty scholarship covers tuition and fees, students will face a $13,000 room-and-board cost if they choose to live on campus. But McDonald said the students likely would be eligible for state and federal aid that would cover the cost. The program is aimed at helping low-income students. That will likely include those families whose average income would be between $35,000 and $40,000, although it depends on number of children in the family and other factors considered in the federal financial-aid form.

The university piloted the scholarships for the last three years, offering two a year to promising students in the Philadelphia Futures mentoring program, McDonald said. The students earned a GPA between 3.3 and 3.4. Their success encouraged Drexel to expand, she said.

Drexel will select its first group of Liberty Scholars this spring. In addition to regular admission requirements, applicants will write an essay on the most important issue they'd tackle if elected mayor of Philadelphia 30 years from now. They also will be interviewed.

Each scholar will be assigned a mentor to provide one-on-one assistance in the hope of increasing the chances of on-time graduation.

McDonald said her staff researched what other city-based colleges nationally offer local students and didn't find anything close to the programs at Penn and Drexel.

She said she hoped the program would encourage students to work harder at readying themselves for college.

"I want the kids who walk by Drexel all the time to look at this university and say, 'I can go there,' " she said, " 'and I can go there if I work really hard and I can go there if I get good grades.' "

Interested students must complete the Liberty scholars application by March 1. In addition to 2010 city high school graduates, the program also will be open to residents educated outside the city, those who were homeschooled, and those who completed a general equivalency diploma.